Bengals take 10-7 halftime lead, with minimal chaos

Jeff Triplette and his crew were able to stay incognito for nearly a half.

But you knew it couldn’t last.

The Bengals benefitted from a long review of a completed pass just before halftime, getting a 46-yard field goal from Mike Nugent for a 10-7 halftime lead over the Chargers.

After review, Jermaine Gresham was ruled to have controlled a reception before his forward progress stopped, allowing the Bengals to sneak the field goal in (though there was some confusion about the time on the clock).

That capped a solid second quarter from the Bengals, after the Chargers took the early lead.

Though it took him nearly 10 postseason quarters, Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton finally threw his first playoff touchdown in the second, hitting Gresham from 4 yards out.

Dalton threw four interceptions and no touchdowns in his first two postseason appearances, both Bengals losses.

He nearly had his second, but Giovani Bernard fumbled into the end zone just before the break, and the Chargers recovered.

The biggest news might be that referee Triplette has had three chances to review plays, and hasn’t egregiously screwed any one of them up.

That stands as progress in Cincinnati, and a good sign for the second half.

People call Alex Smith a game manager like it’s an insult and refuse to acknowledge rivers can’t or won’t throw it beyond 3 yds it’s time rivers is called out for being so minimal in the very few big games he’s played in

Yeah that was watered down officiating drama compared to what we have seen before, we should all feel lucky to have avoided a meltdown. Still took a really long time to sort everything out though, geeze.

Hasn’t screwed up a review, but they definitely had some clock issues with that last review of the half. The clock should have been set back to 12ish seconds, instead it was at 2 and running. Luckily for them it didn’t matter.

8oneanddones says:Jan 5, 2014 2:46 PM

Go Danny Woodhead!

wingslax35 says:Jan 5, 2014 2:50 PM

According to Ian Eagle on the raduo, he and rich Gannon were saying there was a spuke after the last reviewed call, therefore it should not been reviewed. Any truth???

If it was not reviewed at all, then the Bengals spike on the next play would have counted and they would have stopped the clock anyway. To say that the Bengals “benefitted” from this lengthy call is irresponsible. If nothing else, it made it more difficult to make the kick by removing the spike.

What about the clock. They did not reset the clock after the spike did not count. There should have been more than 2 seconds left as they should’ve reset the clock to what it was after the catch was made. There were 2 seconds left AFTER the spike, not before.

If they ruled it a catch then the clock should not be reset to 12 seconds. Forward progress was stopped while in bounds so the receiver was down in bounds.

That being said, the clock should have been reset to 12 seconds because that was an incomplete pass. Forward progress applies as much to the process as being in the endzone did for Calvin Johnson. Not at all.

How did they review that play if the Bengals already ran a subsequent play? I thought if a play was run you couldn’t go back and review a prior play…

wingslax35 says:Jan 5, 2014 2:58 PM

My bad, Trent Green, not Gannon.

harrisonhits2 says:Jan 5, 2014 3:04 PM

While I believe that should have been called a catch, we’ve seen people bumped out of bounds all season and if they didn’t maintain possession all the way through hitting the ground it was ruled an incompletion.

This happened whether the receiver was pushed, forwards, laterally or backwards. Trying to claim forward progress as the reason for not calling it an incompletion is a crock.

Think they screwed up the call on the reception. By that logic, every time a receiver makes a catch and gets immediately hit from behind where the hit drives him backward, it should be ruled a catch regardless of whether he maintains possession of the football. That catch had to be secured through the fall to the ground.

brimab says:Jan 5, 2014 3:24 PM

Why did he even have to go under the hood if he knew that forward progress had stopped prior to the receiver going out of bounds? That’s not reviewable right? I’m completely stumped at what could have possibly taken so long. At least he got it right, but geeze, did it really have to take so long to get there?

raiders85 says:
Jan 5, 2014 2:42 PM
People call Alex Smith a game manager like it’s an insult and refuse to acknowledge rivers can’t or won’t throw it beyond 3 yds it’s time rivers is called out for being so minimal in the very few big games he’s played in
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